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This section was my workspace for philosophy essays between July 2006 and April 2008.
I call this "Prehistoric Kilroy" because it gave me practice for more
disciplined essays in Kilroy Cafe.Also see my philophical blog and Twitter feed.

Issue #6, 8/19/2006

Paranoia
and Its Uses

By Glenn CampbellFamily Court Philosopher

Pity the poor paranoid. Everywhere he goes,
he is followed by enemies. People are whispering
about him behind his back. His phone is being
tapped. His family members have been replaced by
clones. Poison has been added to his tap water.
The CIA sends mind control rays into his house.

What a horrible existance! Who would choose to
live like this?

The answer: All of us would at one point or
another. Paranoia happens for a reason. It doesn't
just come out of thin air. We choose to see
threats where they don't exist because it serves
an internal need. Paranoia helps us escape our own
self-doubt and responsibility.

Paranoia is a mechanism to help us restore our
self-esteem when it has been damaged. It is
rarely effective in the long run, but that's not
the point. Paranoia addresses our immediate
feelings of inferiority and self-reproach. It is
a knee-jerk reaction to some perceived threat to
our inner worth.

How does paranoia work? Here is a simple example:
Let's say you fail an important test at school.
It pretty humbling, eh? You think to yourself,
"Am I dumb? Am I worthless?"  which are very
difficult feelings for most people to hold.

You do not have to feel worthless if the teacher
deliberately made you fail. This is where the
conspiracies begin. Maybe the teacher marked the
test wrong, or maybe she deliberately gave you the
questions she knew you couldn't answer. She's a
fat, ugly teacher anyway. She doesn't know
anything about teaching, because if she did you
would have learned more and passed the test.

Failing the test is not your fault; it's the
teacher's fault. She is part of a deliberate
conspiracy against you. There, don't you feel
better already?

This is the essence of paranoia: an alternative
explanation for ones own failings and insecurities.

Even the grander forms or paranoia have the
avoidance of self-reproach at their base. If there
are voices in my head, they can't be my fault. I'm
not crazy, so someone else must be putting the
voices in there. The CIA! They must have the
technology. If not them, then the NSA, the KGB or
the aliens. (Aliens are great for this kind of
thing, because their technology is limitless.)

Why is the price of gasoline so high? It must be
the Jews conspiring with the Arabs and the oil
companies to strategically foment unrest in the
world and increase the value of their assets.
High oil prices are a humiliation to anyone who
just bought an SUV and thought that $1.50/gallon
would last forever. You don't have to feel so
humiliated if there was a conspiracy against you.
Then the bad judgement wasn't yours and you can't
be blamed for your own mistakes.

Paranoia gives us a sense of control over
otherwise humiliating or uncontrollable events. We
aren't just tiny, worthless corks floating in an
incomprehensible ocean. If we understand the grand
conspiracy behind it allor think we
dothen we are in control of the ocean and
don't feel so small and helpless.

Paranoia is not limited to a false perception of
threat. Another form is hopeless idealization. If
you think that Madonna is secretly in love with
you and is singing every song with you in mind,
that is also paranoia, even though there is no
immediate sense of threat. Common infatuations
are a milder form of paranoia. Whenever we fall
in love, we inevitably fall for a
delusionwhat we want the other person
to be, rather than what they really are.

Paranoia can also be a defense against potential rejection.
Whenever we encounter some bit of good fortune
that is better than we feel we deserve, we
will try to find fault with it. If something (or
someone) seems "too good to be true" in comparison
to our own self-image, then we search for its
flaws, and paranoia guarantees that we will find
them. Rather than waiting for rejection to happen,
as we know it will, we make it happen
ourselves.

This is often seen in the romantic realm. Single
people aren't just searching for the best mate;
they are searching the best mate who won't
reject them. They may dream of a Brad Pitt,
Angelina Jolie or equivalent perfect partner
but actually dating one generates internal
tension. Why would Brad Pitt be interested in
dumpy little me? Inevitably, we detect something
wrong with Brad and find an excuse to reject him.
We dump him before he can dump us.

Paranoia assures that we will end up with
someone who matches our internal self-image,
whatever that may be.

How do some attractive women always end up with abusive men?
When good men come along, these women go cold and
reject them. The good guys create internal
tension, and paranoia will always give us an
excuse for letting them go.

Sexual paranoia is a common delusion of anyone who
was ever attracted to the opposite sex (or the
same sex). Our emotional needs are huge: We
expect from an intimate relationship not just sex
but the repair of all of our existential wounds.
No relationship can really provide this, but we
expect it to, and we idealize real and potential
partners to the point where we are bound to be
disappointed.

When our hearts are finally broken, we blame all
"men" or all "women" as though each was an
organized conspiracy specifically designed to
deceive and demean us. When love falls apart, we
idealize our ex-partner and his "kind" in the
opposite direction, as a perfect villains. In
fact, men and women are pretty much the same:
oversensitive little children in unfamiliar bodies
who are struggling for self-esteem and not always
choosing the best way to find it.

Paranoia is the great enforcer that keeps people
in their place. It assures that factory workers
in grimy northern cities stay there. "I wouldn't
want to live anywhere else," they proudly proclaim,
mainly because they actively find flaw in any
other alternative. Paranoia assures that our
prior investments are protected. We know we made
the right choice because whenever we see a
credible alternative we neutralize it by unfair
means.

Paranoia helps explain the Great Mystery of Family
Court: Why are divorces so nasty? When a
relationship falls apart, it can't be my
fault. It must be the other person. I need
to find fault with themand
quicklybecause if I don't, then the fault
will fall on me, which is emotionally
unacceptable.

Paranoia is inherently aggressive (even when it is
pursued in secret). It is driven. Wherever there
is paranoia, there is usually an obsessive
internal need to prove it. A paranoid theory is
inherently flawed, and if it is left undefended,
it will disintegrate. To neutralize internal
doubts, paranoia needs to be actively "sold" to
the public whenever the subject arises. That is why
the paranoid is often agressive, violent and
pompous. He needs to put on the theatrical
show to counter perceived criticism coming from
within.

At divorce, a traumatic and ego-challenging
event has a occurredthe collapse of the love
illusionleaving both parties at emotional
risk. Their vulnerabilities tend to lead to
paranoid reactions. It can't be my fault; it must
be theirs. The pleasant fantasy we had at the
beginningof perfect loveeasily gets
turned around 180° to a perfect threat.

When a divorcing couple walks into court, both
parties claim to be the victim. But usually one
is more aggressive in their victimhood. He or she
is angrier, is making more colorful claims and
can't seem to stick to the point. The person with
the weaker factual argument usually tries to
compensate for it by yelling louder and promoting
more extravagant theories.

On the surface, both parties seem justified. If you
talk only to one of them, you may be totally
convinced that the other is at fault for whatever
has gone wrong. In TPO court especially, it often
comes down to, "He said, she said." So how does a
judge figure it out?

For the most part, the judge doesn't have to. They
simply divide the assets in an equitable manner
and move the case along. When they do have to
determine fault, however, it isn't hard. You just
ask the parties intelligent questions and let them
talk. The paranoid position is inherently
aggressive and inherently flawed. The paranoid is
the one who gets livid when pushed. Their theory
may sound coherent at first, but when you start
asking logical questions raised by their position,
you will soon find the fatal flaw. You know you
have found it when the party gets angry and tries
to initiate a whole new set of charges.

Paranoid theories are inevitably twisted, and the
brains that hold them become twisted, too. The
paranoid brain quickly short-circuits if it thinks
too much or is asked too many questions, so
paranoids don't like to think or be asked
questions. In public, they'll push the questions
away with anger. When alone in their room,
they'll turn on the TV to block out any
uncontrolled thoughts. When there is no TV and no
one to get angry at, don't despair. There is still
a solution.